Adjust inflated teacher salaries

Wednesday

Mar 7, 2018 at 6:00 AM

By Richard Staedtler

The current Council Rock School District teachers’ contract expires June 30. The widening disparity between teacher and private sector compensation and possible corrective measures to prevent another sweetheart contract with the teachers’ union are as follows:

According to the Census Bureau, the average Bucks County weekly wage in March 2017 was $981, or $51,000 annually. In October 2016, the Bucks County Courier Times reported the average Council Rock teacher’s salary was $96,978. Now it is probably approximately $100,000. Many teachers make the maximum of $110,743.

Most private sector employees receive only annual inflation increases. If they want more salary, they must switch jobs and take on more responsibilities. Conversely, teachers receive three increases simultaneously — inflation, 14 years of time-in grade increases and large advanced degree increases without any increased responsibility.

Council Rock teachers’ pay between 12 percent and 19 percent of health insurance and have Cadillac plans. The average private sector worker pays between 25 percent and 35 percent of plan costs and has a Chevy plan, at best.

Council Rock teachers work 190 days and have every conceivable holiday and summers off. Private sector employees work an average of 240 days.

Council Rock teachers have unsurpassed job security. It is virtually impossible and cost-prohibitive to fire an ineffective teacher with four grievance steps required to terminate an ineffective teacher. In the private sector, employees can be fired for any reason — bankruptcy, downsizing, corporate consolidation or the owner’s son needs a job!

Here are some measures to rationalize teacher compensation as follows:

Base inflation adjustments on an established wage index that affects taxpayers like BLS, CPI, or the Act 1 index. In the three contract years ending in 2012, teachers received 6.25 percent inflation increases while private sector wages declined 1.2 percent. None of us are clairvoyant concerning future inflation. Give teachers the same plus and minus inflation adjustment as taxpayers.

Fourteen-year English and physics teachers with Master of Arts degrees are paid the same. English is an easy major; virtually all pass. Physics is a difficult major, and as a result many drop out. English majors are hard pressed to earn 50 percent of what the district pays them outside public education. Physics majors can earn equal or more in the private sector.

Add a multiplier that reflects supply and demand to starting salaries. For English and education majors, it may be 80 percent versus 120 percent for science majors. That would reflect supply-and-demand realities in teacher salaries.

Most experts conclude master’s degrees do not make master teachers. Arne Duncan, Obama’s education secretary, called them “an example of something that doesn’t work.” The left-wing Center for American Progress said they “bear no relation to student achievement.” If a teacher wants a master of arts, the administration should approve the curriculum, reimburse $30,000 of tuition and pay the teacher $25,000 upon completion of the degree instead of paying between $800,000 and $1 million more in salaries and between $400,000 and $500,000 more in pensions for a 40-year teacher.

These policy changes will reduce teacher compensation and school taxes immensely. Return the 30 percent to 40 percent of the savings to outstanding teachers based on ratings, improved student test scores and exceptional performances — not worthless degrees collected.

The Pennsylvania Constitution requires a “thorough and efficient” education.

If English teachers are paid $110,000, it can’t be efficient. The Pennsylvania Department of Education website states its vision is creating “productive citizens,” not establishing elite private school equivalents for the 30 percent with kids enrolled in a district school or getting as many graduates as possible into Harvard or Princeton.

If that is your goal — do so with your own nickel. It is easy to spend other people’s money.

Langhorne resident Richard Staedtler, CPA, is a 22-year Army and Vietnam veteran.

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